Wow! did I have an in-tray when I got home from my weeks away writing.  I answered all the Emails while I was away, but the letters, calls and stuff...my Goodness, I still haven't caught up.

But the success the Members are having is really taking my breath away.  That success is happening because the guys are working their socks off - they really had to get away from the day to day jobs and concentrate on what they love best: their music.

The Brain is a wonderful organ. 

It starts working the moment you get up in the morning

and does not stop until you get into the office.
Robert Frost  

 But isn't it weird, when your brain gets on to music time, your brain is in top gear until five in the morning?  It's because you have infinite enthusiasm for the work you love and no enthusiasm whatever for the work your boss piles on your desk.  That is why it is impossible to make a fortune working for someone else.  You must always work for yourself.  It is the only chance you have of making that elusive pile of dosh.  Amazingly, music is the easiest business to make the money in.  But "ya gotta do it right!"

Peter Ebdon won the snooker world championship recently in a final frame thriller against seven times champ Stephen Hendry. He wins by dedication and determination and admits he has far less talent than a lot of other players. His fave book and bible? 'Think and Grow Rich' by Napoleon Hill.  He returned to his school this week and gave out 160 copies of it to pupils.  That famous book is a book I recommend to all that will listen. The philosophy in it is that you think....think of a good idea, work hard on that idea with ambition and persistence and you cannot fail.  Isn't music just like that?

What's the most important part of a song?

Maybe it's the lyrics?  I had a nice little piece sent to me by Jason Blume.  I rarely get into advising re. lyrics.  The main advice I give is to keep em short, sharp, repetitive, memorable and keep to 'boy to girl', 'girl to boy' conversational stuff...but then my main raison det're has always been to advise on how to make the dosh from your music...oh yeah, I can tell you exactly how to put the music and lyrics together, but I rather stay away from writing kiddie's 'how to' music books...I deal in the real world of making $fortunes from music.  And $fortune making lyrics are a totally different animal.  Check out Jason's piece - it's interesting.
 
Jason writes:
 I once read an interview with legendary songwriter Leonard Cohen ("Suzanne"), in which he said that when he writes a lyric, he might spend the day filling an entire notebook and if one line actually makes it into the song, he's had a good day!  At first, that seemed incredible to me, but then I realized that most songs don't have more than eight lines in each of two verses (sixteen lines); a maximum of another eight lines in the chorus, and at the most, another four lines of lyric in the bridge. That's a total of 28 lines (and many songs might have less). Taking 28 days to write a song
with each line being an extraordinary line could produce twelve incredible songs per year.  It's easier to get one great song published and recorded than a hundred pretty good ones.

Exercise: Rewriting A Verse Lyric

In your notebook, rewrite each of the following verse lyrics three times. For each rewrite, keep the idea the same, but change the images and the specific words. Feel free to change the length of the lines and where the rhymes occur.

Remember to:

• Use detail
• Keep it conversational
• Use fresh imagery
• Allow the listener to watch the scene unfold.

 "Pisces writes from inspiration, Gemini writes from desperation" 

Mike Love on Brian Wilson